The Portland daily press., 1887-11-12
The Closing Scene.


Fhe closing scene of the tragedy ON which
the curtain rose on the night of the fourth of
May, 1856 was enacted yesterday inside the
jail yard in Chicago, when at the hour
OF ten in the morning four of the insti-
gators of that murderous explosion in
Haymarket Square that killed seven
policemen outright and wounded sixty
Others, paid the penalty of their crimes
upon the gallows. They were not all the
men implicated in the tragedy of that fateful
night. Some of their comrades in that terri
Die crime had fed beyond the reach of JUS
tice. two had had their punishment commQ-
ted to Imprisonment for life, while one had
met with horrible death by his own hand
Concerning the guilt of the men who stood
upon the gallows there was no doubt. They
mad fair and impartial trial, and all
that money and legal acumen could do had
been done to save them from their fate.
The highest judicial body in the State of
Illinois. after long and patient hearing of all
that could be said in their behalf, had con-
nrmed the accuracy and impartiality of the
proceedings which had ended in their copvic
ton and sentence, and the Governor of Illi-
nois, ready and anxious to temper justice
with mercy, after long and careful study of
the case, after listening to the appeal. in
their behalf decided that there we're no ex-
tenuating circumstances which would justi-
~ any interference with the carrying out of
tne sentence OF the court Martyrs these
men were not, they were simply the vic
TINS OF their own evil passions, stimulat-
ed by broodlng over fancied wrongs which
they pretended to think that society had
done them.
Yet as the public have watched them day
after day, drawing nearer to their dreadful
end, as they have read of the grief of their
wives and children, there has grown up feel
Ing OF pity which would have gladly modified
their punishment, If in milder form it could
have been made to subserve one of the chief
purposes of all punishments namely. the
restraint of men of similar spirit from SINH
lar acts. The feeling of vengeance which
seized the public mind on the night of the
terrible tragedy largely passed away with
the fading out Of the details of that affair.
and the murderers were launched into eter-
nifty not in spirit of revenge or bloodthirs
tlness, but because calm deliberatiou brought
conviction that the duty which the State
owes to its citizens wo'ld not be performed
unless the sentence of the law was carried
out to its fullest extent Society did not
Kin them to revenge itself, but to protect
Itself. Had it been simply question of the
deserts OF these men, then, though they de-
served to die. their lives might well have
been spared But the question was a far
broader one than that land involved the
safety of the lives and property of the law
abiding men and women of the land. 1t was
this consideration undoubtedly which led
Gov. Oglesby to sign the death warrant. OF
a sympathetic nature he would no doubt
have gladly spared the lives of these men if
he could have reconciled such clemency
with the full performance of his duty to the
people Of which he is the executive head.
But after long and anxious consideration he
found that he could not, and to his lasting
honor be 1t said that his loyalty to duty
was mistaken.